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Originally Posted by XabbaRus
Could you care to provide sources to back that claim up.
Russia is pissed off because assurances were made that NATO wouldn't go right up to Russia's borders and they went back on it. Now having looked at your profile I doubt you will be able to provide objective data but please try.
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If you can understand russian,I advice you to read what russian military analysts are talking on this issue.The most widely discussed question is so called "Project 2010".
Project 2010 actually means the year of 2010,when Russia is expected to reach the lowest point in it's strategic nuclear attack capabilities,and U.S.A is expected to reach the top of it's military power contrarywise.That will provide U.S. the possibility to strike first with no threat of being counter-attacked.
These conclusions were made as a result of rigorous calculations of how both U.S. and russian military potentials are changing.
So what has Russia got actually:
During Soviet Era the key weapon of russian nuclear arsenal was the
SS-18 Satan ICBM.USSR had approximately 308 such missiles,each with huge nuclear warhead loadout and awesome number of countermeasures.They were capable to jam and penetrate virtually any missile defence system.But,all of them are ending their service life now.
All production facilities for these missiles were left in Ukraine after the end of the Soviet Union.
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In the last decade Russian armed forces have been steadily reducing the number of R-36M missiles in service, withdrawing those that age past their designed operational lifetime. About 40 missiles of the most modern variant R-36M2 (or RS-20V) will remain in service until 2020 and will be then replaced by newer MIRV version of Topol-M. In March 2006 Russia made agreement with Ukraine that will regulate cooperation between the two countries on maintaining the R-36M2 missiles. It was reported that the cooperation with Ukraine will allow Russia to extend service life of the R-36M2 missiles by at least ten years to 25 year.[4]
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Russia has now really three combat ready regiments of "Topol-M" mobile ICBMs,totaling of something about 54 units.Each one has got approximately 100-120 times smaller nuclear warhead and countermeasure loadout then SS-18 Satan had.Production tempos at Votkinsk Plant are 4-6 units a year,instead of planned 40-50 units.Again,I will repeat those ICBMS are much less powerful than U.S.Trident D5 ICBMs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topol-M
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-36_(missile)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trident_missile
Russia has now got only one operational Typhoon Class SSBN TK 208 Dmitry Donskoy.5 other submarines of this class are withdrawn from service.U.S. Navy has all 18 SSBN Ohio active in service.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_class_submarine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_class_submarine
Situation in air force capabilities comparison is even worse.USAF has got 21 B-2 Spirit bombers that are absolutely invisible to any russian radar system and can smash any strategic objects deep inside russian territory.Russians have only got 14 Tu-160 Black Jacks and old Tu-95 Bears that are extremely vulnerable.USAF has got over 100 newest 5th generation F-22 Raptors that have no competitors in Russian Air Force at all.
It is not as shiny picture as Mr.Putin trying to present it,isn't it?